James Marsh
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My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
Directed by Jim Sheridan
influenced The Theory of Everything (2014)
Characters Themes
It’s wrenching to watch and recalls elements of Daniel Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance in “My Left Foot.”
All this makes the performance of the youthful, freckled Redmayne, at 32 playing his first lead in a movie, so exciting, and reminiscent of another British actor's memorable performance at the same age — Daniel Day-Lewis, in "My Left Foot."
Still, what’s onscreen is less a cerebral experience than a stirring and bittersweet love story, inflected with tasteful good humor, that can’t help but recall earlier disability dramas like “My Left Foot” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”
Eddie Redmayne's captivating performance will be compared to Daniel Day Lewis's achievement in "My Left Foot," but it is important to note how much life, joy and humor he brings to the role with little more than a cocked eyebrow, a few facial muscles and his eyes (a scene where he gets his head caught in a sweater when Jane leaves the room is delightfully relatable).
It recalls Daniel Day Lewis' in My Left Foot — minus the rage.
Comparisons to Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning work in "My Left Foot" are inevitable — and not undeserved.
A Brief History of Time (1991)
Directed by Errol Morris
influenced The Theory of Everything (2014)
Plot
Striving to pay equal tribute to Hawking’s first wife, Jane (on whose memoir the film is based), and her tireless devotion to him until their 25-year marriage ended in 1995, director James Marsh similarly attempts to find intimate, personal applications for Hawking’s grand cosmic inquiries, tracing the story of how the author of “A Brief History of Time” came to defy time itself.
If I want a more complicated explanation of the universe, then I can refer to Hawking’s book, “A Brief History of Time.”
This isn't A Brief History of Time (1991) or Stephen Hawking's Grand Design (2012).
The thing is, Errol Morris already made A Brief History of Time , and there's simply not much about the life and work of Stephen Hawking that the 80-minute documentary left on the table.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Directed by Julian Schnabel
influenced The Theory of Everything (2014)
Themes Visuals
The inspirational biopic about a person with a disability who triumphs over adversity isn’t something new (though a really good one, like Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , can still do something new with the form).
Still, what’s onscreen is less a cerebral experience than a stirring and bittersweet love story, inflected with tasteful good humor, that can’t help but recall earlier disability dramas like “My Left Foot” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”
You'll also see echoes of the math-equation moments in "Good Will Hunting" and the communication challenges of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," though, of course, Hawking's story predates both of those films.
This movie concentrates on Hawking's personal life, and should draw favorable comparisons to "My Left Foot," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and other tastefully triumphant, fact-based dramas about protagonists who do not allow disabilities to destroy their achievements and lives.
Viewers looking to see a challenging and enlightening perspective on a similar condition should see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , which uses pioneering camera and narrative technique to get inside the mind of its paralyzed protagonist.
The Theory of Everything doesn’t worry itself with tunneling into Hawking’s psyche or find ways to visualize his breathtaking mind the way great bio-movies like My Left Foot or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly have done.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Directed by Ron Howard
influenced The Theory of Everything (2014)
Characters Plot Themes
As gentle and saintly as Jennifer Connelly's character in A Beautiful Mind, Jones' Jane is immensely appealing if a bit unbelievable.
Like Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind,” James Marsh’s “The Theory of Everything” presents a glossy, manipulative but affecting portrait of a brilliant man struck, but not struck down, by a terrible malady—in the case of John Nash, the protagonist of Howard’s film, schizophrenia, and in that of Stephen Hawking, the focus of this one, motor-neuron disease.
It’s unlikely to generate the same high profile as, say, A Beautiful Mind, another notable biopic about a scientist with a disability and a long-suffering wife.
By focusing on the relationship, “The Theory of Everything” largely backgrounds Hawking’s scientific achievements, although it doesn’t dismiss them; this isn’t like “A Beautiful Mind,” which ended with the message that what’s really important in life is “a beautiful heart.”
It is no more about science than Pollock was about painting or Julie & Julia was about cooking, and less than A Beautiful Mind was about mathematics.
It's not the best imaginable performance of Hawking that could be given (according to most who have seen it - I have not - it adds nothing that Benedict Cumberbatch didn't already do in the 2004 television movie Hawking ), it's more than this rickety display of shallow humanism requires.
There is much biographical crossover between the 2004 BBC TV film Hawking (starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Hawking) and this grander, more photogenic adaptation of his first wife Jane's memoir.
Audiences with sensitivity toward animals whose wild instincts have been stifled by human intervention might see this as a cross between James Marsh’s soulful Project Nim and the terrifying sitcom chimp incident in Jordan Peele’s Nope.
You'll also see echoes of the math-equation moments in "Good Will Hunting" and the communication challenges of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," though, of course, Hawking's story predates both of those films.
While it’s not a fun movie to watch, the story is delivered in a dazzling package, thanks to sweeping aerial shots of the desert and border cities combined with sparse, intense background music from Johann Johannsson (“The Theory of Everything”).
Backed by Roger Deakins' (2012's " Skyfall ") towering cinematography and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's (2014's " The Theory of Everything ") bestial, droning musical cacophony, each image and sound carries with it a clinching sense of foreboding.
It is beautifully directed, it features top-notch work by its three leads, and it is all set to a dazzling, unnerving score (Johan Johannson, who wrote the gorgeous score for 2014’s “The Theory of Everything”), but the film is all undone by a script that isn’t half as clever as it thinks it is.
With the aid of cinematographer Roger Deakins (“ Skyfall ”) and composer Johann Johannsson (“ The Theory Of Everything ”), Villeneuve parlays Sheridan’s words into a beast of a drama that moves with purpose and precision, nearly crossing the finish line without so much as a blemish.
James Marsh's movie is for physicist Stephen Hawking what Walk the Line was to Johnny Cash, emotional complexity distilled for easier commercial digestion.
The film is lushly photographed by Benoît Delhomme ("Lawless," "A Most Wanted Man"), reveling in the romanticism of Cambridge's May Ball and the cool verdancy of the English countryside.
Marsh, an accomplished documentarian-turned-feature director whose last film, Shadow Dancer (2013), was a slow-burn drama set against “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, and French cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (Lawless, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) give The Theory of Everything a heightened visual style that bathes virtually every sequence in an emotionally charged light.
Even if you've seen him in films as varied as The Good Shepherd (2006), My Week With Marilyn (2011) and Les Misérables (2012), you wouldn't recognize him here in a million years.
The color scheme, tied with the electronic-heavy score by Jóhann Jóhannsson ("The Theory of Everything"), heightens a tension that gets under the audience's skin.
Cinematographer Bradford Young (who worked with Ava DeVernay on both Middle of Nowhere , 2012 and Selma , 2014), editor Joe Walker ( 12 Years a Slave , 2013), production designer Patrice Vermette (his fourth collaboration with the director), and eclectic composer Jóhann Jóhannson ( The Theory of Everything , 2014) blend their collective craftsmanship into a mesmerizing accomplishment.
Although Oscar voters may argue, his respectable portrayal doesn’t reach quite the same heights as Daniel Day-Lewis in “My Left Foot” or even John Hawkes in “The Sessions.”
But before the couple leave, Sheriff Sheldon Burke (Michael McElhatton, "Albert Nobbs," "Shadow Dancer") arrives, wheeling in his crime scene's Jane Doe (Olwen Kelly).
The Sea Inside (2004)
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
influenced The Theory of Everything (2014)
Themes
While it didn't quite affect me like "My Left Foot," the little seen (but superb) "The Sea Inside" or the somewhat thematically similar "A Beautiful Mind," this is still a strong and moving offering about facing long odds and nonetheless moving forward.
As scripted by Anthony McCarten (“Darkest Hour,” “The Theory of Everything”), it lacks the cathartic intimacy, the rippingly authentic you-are-there excitement of a great rock-world biopic like “Sid and Nancy” or “Get On Up” or “Love & Mercy.”
If you’re interested in learning about Mercury’s Parsi heritage (unique for a western rock star of any era), his complicated relationship with his girlfriend Mary Austin, his closeted (yet also flaunted) homosexuality, or his contracting of the HIV virus, then look elsewhere: I just told you as much about them as Anthony McCarten’s anemic screenplay (he also neutered Stephen Hawking’s story in the woefully hackneyed The Theory of Everything) wants to mention.
Written by Anthony McCarten (who wrote the similarly vapid “Darkest Hour” and “The Theory of Everything,” which succeeded based on explosive leading performances) “Bohemian Rhapsody” is too engaged with the spectacle to take heed of the very human, inherently mystifying and intriguing man at its core.
"Bohemian Rhapsody"—written by Anthony McCarten (" The Theory of Everything ", " Darkest Hour ") and directed by Bryan Singer (with uncredited director Dexter Fletcher , who took over after Singer was fired)—wants me to watch the costume ball scene and think, "Wow, I'm scared for Freddie.
The performances are good across the board, but the characters are only as interesting as the writing, by Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”), and he has lavished all of his attention on Mercury.
It doesn’t even have those touches of irreverence and quirkiness that set Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech (2010) above the basic biopic.
This year’s “The King’s Speech,” “The Theory of Everything” hews so closely to the Masterpiece theater-like tradition of fine British filmmaking that at some level it is a parody of that tradition’s virtues.
Surprisingly, screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Theory Of Everything) manages to effortlessly cover Churchill’s complex relationships with his wife, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas), allies (Sir Anthony Eden, played by Samuel West), and close personal assistant, Elizabeth Nel née Layton (Lily James).
While Nolan focused exclusively on the plight of the Allied soldiers, including most of the British army, stranded on the beaches of the French town of Dunkirk, Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour," written by Anthony McCarten ("The Theory of Everything"), provides the context, detailing the political turmoil at home amid Winston Churchill's (Gary Oldman) rise to power as prime minister.
Writer Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything) based his screenplay on heavy research, Churchill’s speeches on record, and fan-fiction wish-fulfilment.
The smart, taut screenplay -- by "The Theory of Everything" writer Anthony McCarten -- covers a crucial month in 1940 when Churchill assumes government leadership while dealing with undermining political adversaries, plus cautiously courting support from a highly skeptical King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn).
Screenwriter McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”) gives us his stumbles, his high-handedness, loopy impulses and drunken, slurred speech, letting all comers name the old man’s shortcomings.
(Screenwriter Anthony McCarten also wrote the mawkish Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory Of Everything ; this is the scene where it really shows.)
It is no more about science than Pollock was about painting or Julie & Julia was about cooking, and less than A Beautiful Mind was about mathematics.
DiCaprio’s performance — as with Eddie Redmayne’s work in “The Theory of Everything” and “The Danish Girl” — places too much emphasis on the external trappings of his character and fails to create an inner life.